A couple of weeks later, Muzaffar arrived for his first check of McHenry. He pointed out frustrations and warned of changes. A second management exodus followed in late 2025, several people say. The new head of production, months into the job, was among the cuts. “There’s no clear direction, and it’s difficult to steer the ship when you’re offing the captain,” says one ex-worker.
By the end of last year, staff at McHenry had yet to finalize standard operating procedures across the mass production line, two people say. Basic safety measures remained outstanding: Workers on the 470-acre campus communicated emergencies over Slack messages or phone calls, according to several people familiar with the issue, though thick blast walls made mobile service a no-go in Roberto. One of the people says a central alarm system was to be prioritized as soon as Roberto started working with explosive propellant. Employees had to first walk inside production facilities to get protective gear, several people say.
A goal of delivering inert motors for ground-launched bombs to Swedish aerospace company Saab by the end of this month was pushed back based on anticipated delays and changing specifications, two people say. Saab spokesperson Mattias Rådström says its partnership is progressing as planned.
Blasko, Anduril’s retired neighbor in McHenry, says noise from the facility is a common occurrence now. He compares it to a fighter jet roaring by for 20 seconds. Deer, turkeys, and the hunters chasing them have become rare sights on his 10 acres. He and his wife would consider leaving their home of 11 years if Anduril reaches its mass production goals. “We’ve lost our peace and quiet around here,” he says.
But Blasko need not start packing. More than seven months since the ribbon cutting, Anduril hasn’t announced any test fires of a motor produced in Roberto. It hasn’t said whether any of its own products, such as its Barracuda missile, will use McHenry motors from Roberto. This month, two chief engineers and a director for the rocket motor division updated their LinkedIn profiles to reflect that they were looking for new jobs. The state of the business has people “worried they made the wrong choice rolling the dice on this startup,” one person says. “I pray for people relocating to Ohio, Rhode Island, and everywhere else.”
Anthony Di Stasio, a former Pentagon official who oversaw a $14.3 million grant to the McHenry plant in the final days of the Biden administration, says he is not concerned or surprised. Construction, management, and supply chain issues were inevitable in his mind. He had calculated 2028 for mass production, disregarding the company’s public statements.
“Everyone says, ‘I can do everything right away,’ but they can’t,” Di Stasio says. “This is just normal growing pains of trying to rebuild manufacturing in the US. I warned them it was going to be three to five years before they were competitive.”
Still, “everything right away” seems to be what Anduril is aiming for in Ohio. It has already prepared initial hires for Fury, the uncrewed fighter jet for which it does not yet have a production contract. Luckey has pointed out that Fury went from prototype contract to test flight last October in 556 days, which he claims is faster than any fighter plane since the end of the Korean War. But General Atomics, Anduril’s competitor for an Air Force contract to make the drones, held its test flight two months earlier. There’s no guarantee that Anduril will win Fury business. About half of Anduril’s product lines have won contracts for mass production, WIRED found based on press releases, media reports, and a person familiar with the deals.